I heard on the news recently about how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, wanted to visit Ground Zero.  I’m trying to find out if he wanted to visit proactively, or if it was scheduled by someone else, but I’m not entirely sure.  Either way, the US denied the request and some quotes include things like “Our position is that President Ahmadinejad will not be permitted to go to ground zero”.

Then I heard about how Columbia University invited him to come speak at their college, supposedly under the guise of “free speech.”  This is the same university, if you recall, that basically rejected, quashed and stopped Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist from speaking. I don’t understand the university’s outpouring of welcome, especially to someone who is on the record as saying he wants to wipe Isreal off the map.  Nor can I see their waffling of position on free speech.  After seeing their plans of what they wanted to present at the forum, I guess I can give a little latitude, but still, I don’t favor giving a platform for hate speech, especially to someone who is supposedly an honored guest.

Anyway, for some reason (maybe because I can be a paranoid freak), when I heard all this, I immediately envisioned some quatrain from Nostradamus, which I shall make up here for purposes of illustration only:

A surviving King in the east travels across an expansive lake,
This leader sets afoot upon the site of a disaster,
two and four years after he sparked such disaster,
The visit sets off actions of his followers,
A permanent fire to the land of the stars and stripes rages the lands.

Who knows, maybe Nostradamus *has* said something - I can’t find it. I don’t know how often the Iranian President comes to New York, either, or if this would be routine or historic.

But I get a gut feeling that his visit is intentional, and it’s a signal to terror cells. Perhaps a visit to NY itself is nothing, but a visit to Ground Zero is the catalyst.  What the catalyst does - I don’t know, but my wacky conspiracy theory worst-scenario mindset is that it’s to let people know - the countdown starts.  Sharpen your blades, purchase your fuel; we’re about to get started.

I’m glad other people worry about this stuff for a living and not me.  I’m free to live out the American Dream, funded by our soldiers’ blood and sacrifice, protected by the laws we see fit to pass and enforce.   I just wish we could go through our day in our own language.

My standard disclaimer for a post like this would have to include:

• I have not met Ahmadinejad and I have no idea what he’s really thinking.  All I know I get from news, ‘teh Internets’ and talk radio.  So I know I’m a puppet, k?
• I am no scholar or even very knowledgable at all in middle east terms, intentions, culture or anything.  I can’t even tell you the difference between Sunni from Shiite without looking it up, and still after doing so, it seems they’re arguing about something that happened a billion years ago.  In fact, I just now learned how to spell Sunni.  Yay me!
• I realize I may be putting myself at risk by posting.  If I disappear suddenly in a bizarre way, think to yourself “hmm, that’s strange” and then go back to whatever you were doing.
• I wasn’t at the Columbia thing and the people doing the confrontation with Gilchrist probably aren’t the same people who issued the invitation, but I can guess they have the same kinds of thoughts and motives.  I also realize I’m responsible for my own assumptions.
• Whataburger has stolen Wendy’s catch-phrase of “see you tomorrow” when finished with the drive-thru visit.  This is tantamount to treason and it kind. of. fits…. in… with….. ok it’s unrelated.